You have certainly heard that some properties in Croatia wait for their buyer for several years. For sellers, such a long sales process unfortunately becomes a nightmare. It feels as if it lasts forever, while the right buyer is nowhere to be found.
They advertise their properties through agencies, neighbors, relatives, and various acquaintances. They have even reduced the price several times — yet nothing happens.
There is a solution – HOME STAGING.
Home staging is a service of arranging and decorating a property with the goal of presenting it in the best possible way with minimal investment, helping it stand out from the competition, sell faster, and achieve the best possible price.
We have recorded a video on this topic which you can watch here: WHAT IS “HOME STAGING”?
First Impressions Happen Online
Admit it — when you go online to research properties for sale or rent, your very first encounter with any property is the photograph published to attract you to buy that particular home or spend your vacation in that specific apartment. If you do not like what you see in the photo, you simply move on until another beautiful image or interior catches your attention.
When selling property, besides having clear ownership documentation and proper legal status, as well as a good location and price, the presentation and interior arrangement of the property play an increasingly important role.
What Today’s Buyers Really Want
Today’s buyers are more comfortable, financially capable, and well aware of what they want for their money. Not everyone wants to tear down walls, renovate bathrooms, and live in dust alongside contractors for months. Likewise, not everyone wants to measure, search for, and purchase all new furniture before moving in. Recently, more and more buyers are looking for properties that require no additional investment.
For those renting property, appearance is equally important. Whether they are renting long-term or just for a well-deserved vacation, not everyone wants to use outdated furniture in a property where cabinet doors are falling off and everything looks makeshift just for rental purposes.
The Power of Professional Presentation
Photographs used for promotional purposes truly need to present a property that is tidy, clean, thoughtfully decorated with details, and harmonized in color. When browsing listings online, buyers decide solely based on photographs which property they like and which one they will visit in person. Therefore, it is crucial that they fall in love with the property at first sight through the photos.
Ideally, the photographs should be so appealing that buyers immediately imagine themselves moving in and enjoying a stylish life there.
And it takes so little to make that happen.
What Exactly Is Home Staging?
There is a technique of enhancing a property using small but effective tricks — highlighting its strengths and full potential, while discreetly minimizing its shortcomings. It is a carefully designed, systematic, and coordinated methodology of preparing a property for sale. This is called HOME STAGING, or in some countries, PROPERTY STYLING. In Croatia, there is no official professional term for this activity, so it is most often described as “property preparation and decoration before sale,” “pre-sale styling,” or simply “property styling.”
This is NOT interior design, where a property is decorated according to the owner’s personal preferences. Quite the opposite — it is decorating and arranging a property in a way that appeals to the widest possible audience of buyers.
An International Standard
In the United States, where it all began, and now increasingly across Europe, it has become standard practice to hire a home staging professional — a property stylist — to prepare a property so it sells faster and at a better price.
This is how home staging companies abroad present their work, where the difference between the “before” and “after” condition of a property is clearly visible.
For example, the Canadian company Harmony Home Staging and Design showcases impressive before-and-after photographs like these:
Or take the UK-based company Des Res London, which also specializes in home staging and presents striking transformation examples, including the following before-and-after images:
Properties can also be styled through luxury home staging, which is particularly suitable for investors with new, high-quality properties for sale or rent that serve as show properties. Luxury staging also appeals to buyers who appreciate a touch of elegance and are willing to pay for it.
This is how Elite Staging from the USA approaches luxury home staging, as seen in their impressive before-and-after transformations:
If a property is of higher value, it must be styled accordingly to justify its price — rather than charging solely for the location and leaving the new owner to invest a significant additional amount in furnishing and decoration. However, classic home staging remains the most common solution, suitable for properties that are not categorized as luxury. Everything, of course, depends on the available budget for styling.
Why Home Staging Works
The difference between before-and-after photographs can be remarkable, and property owners are extremely satisfied with the results — especially when the property sells or rents within a very short period.
Alfa Real Estate Agency from Vodice is among the first in Croatia to introduce home staging services, enabling property owners to stand out in the market, increase the value of their property, minimize the number of showings, and create love at first sight for buyers or tenants.
To see how the Alfa Design department at Alfa Real Estate transforms properties, take a look at our before-and-after gallery.
If you would like your property to shine and outperform the competition, contact us and request a home staging consultation.
Blog Author:
Jasminka Fišer Gavranović
Licensed Real Estate Agent
Property Stylist – Home Staging Expert
Alfa nekretnine
Obala Juričev Ive Cote 27, Vodice
Office tel.: +385 22 441 292
Mobile: +385 91 525 3260
Email: alfadizajn5@gmail.com